Home Care

Home Care Workers Called in as Experts by Washington State Department of Health

Tuesday, March 30

New home care worker training standards go into effect next year. The Department of Health (DOH) is working to develop the Home Care Aide certification exam. This exam is part of the implementation of Initiative 1029 – passed by voters in 2008. With more than 2 million votes, I-1029 received more support than any candidate or initiative in Washington state history.

In a series of workshops that started on Monday, and that will continue through tomorrow, the DOH turned to experts - Kris Battan, Linda Lee, Judy Harris, Karen Washington, Valerie Anderson-Webb, Eva Gantala, and Chelsea Stine – all member-home care workers from various parts of the state.

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Washington State Leads the Way in Home- and Community-Based Long-Term Care

Monday, March 29

$1.1 billion was included in the Health Care Reform bill to encourage other states to follow our lead – pay home care workers to let seniors and people with disabilities stay in their homes and communities.

Our state has a model home- and community-based care long-term care policy and our 38,000 home care workers can serve as a model for home care workers elsewhere.

Senator Maria Cantwell, who pushed to have this money included in the bill told the [Vancouver] Columbian, “We did this in the Legislature to allow the state to be more flexible. We were trying as a state to say, ‘How do we fix some of our long-term health care costs?”

Now, thanks to the Health Care Reform bill passed last week, other states will have the opportunity to follow our lead.

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